Jacinthe POZIER (1844-1915). Environs d'Eragny-sur-Epte, la - Lot 15

Jacinthe POZIER (1844-1915). Environs d'Eragny-sur-Epte, la meule de foin. Oil on canvas signed lower right, trace of exhibition label upper left. 90 x 104 cm. Provenance: Private collection in Eragny. Biography: Jacinthe POZIER was born on June 3, 1844 at 93 quai de Valmy in Paris. Born into a wealthy family, he received a classical education and studied at the Lycée Impérial Bonaparte, later Lycée Condorcet, where he befriended the future painter Emile Renouf (1845-1894), who introduced him to painting. At the time, the Pozier family vacationed in Honfleur. To perfect his budding passion for painting, he enrolled at the Académie Julian, attended by only twenty or so students, making it easy for him to benefit from Gustave Boulanger's and Jules Lefebvre's corrections. With his pleasant personality, he quickly made friends with students and teachers alike. His father urged him to join the Ministry of Public Works as a surveyor to ensure a steady income: he rose through the ranks, eventually becoming 1st class surveyor of the Paris plan. His friendship with impressionist painter Marius Gourdault (1859-1935) dates from this period. A classical music enthusiast and admirer of Beethoven, Gluck and Mozart, he and his friend Renouf attended Jules Pasdeloup's Concerts populaires almost every Sunday. Every Tuesday, the two friends met in the countryside at Jacinthe's parents' home in Éragny-sur-Epte, in the Oise region, at the time about two hours from Paris by rail. He made his debut at the Salon in 1877, at the age of 33, and won mentions in 1884 and 1877. Jacinthe Pozier's family home was close to "La Pommeraie", acquired by Camille Pissarro in 1884 thanks to a loan from Claude Monet. Pissarro's work had a great influence on Pozier, who admired his work. The two men dated for a few years, but Pissarro was an anarchist and later a Dreyfus supporter, and their political differences put paid to their friendship. Thereafter, the two men carefully avoided each other. Pozier retired in 1898 to Eragny, where he died in 1915 at the age of 71, mourning the death of his son in the war. Jacinthe Pozier's studio collection of around fifty paintings was dispersed in 1926 at Hôtel Drouot (Me Henry Baudoin).